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'Moral Crisis for This Nation': Trump Sued Over Access to Gitmo Prisoners Held 'Illegally' Offshore
“Our Constitution does not allow the government to hold people incommunicado, without any ability to speak to counsel or the outside world."
Feb 13, 2025
A coalition of civil liberties and immigrant rights groups have sued the Trump administration for detaining migrants incommunicado at the offshore prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after they were initially taken into custody in the United States.
The lawsuit—filed Wednesday in federal court by the ACLU, Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), and ACLU of the District of Columbia—was brought on behalf of several plaintiffs, including the sister of a Venezuelan man being held at the facility. It demands that all those being detained have immediate access to legal assistance.
According to the groups, the administration "has provided virtually no information about immigrants newly detained at Guantánamo, including how long they will be held there, under what authority and conditions, subject to what legal processes, or whether they will have any means of communicating with their families and attorneys."
“Our country must not create a shadow system of indefinite detention, stripping noncitizens of their legal protections simply by transferring them offshore."
After pictures emerged last week of the first batch of prisoners shipped to the island and a large tent city that has been erected at Gitmo since President Donald Trump took office less than four weeks ago, fears over what the administration has in store for the facility have only grown.
On Sunday, a federal judge blocked the transfer of three men, currently held in New Mexico, to the island prison complex, but that order only pertained to those specific individuals. The individuals already transferred to Gitmo have yet to be identified by the administration, according to the right groups, or given access to outside legal assistance.
"By hurrying immigrants off to a remote island cut off from lawyers, family, and the rest of the world, the Trump administration is sending its clearest signal yet that the rule of law means nothing to it. It will now be up to the courts to ensure that immigrants cannot be warehoused on offshore islands," Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in a Wednesday statement announcing the lawsuit.
Deepa Alagesan, senior supervising attorney at IRAP, said, "Secretly transferring people from the United States to Guantánamo without access to legal representation or the outside world is not only illegal, it is a moral crisis for this nation."
In an interview with the New York Times published Tuesday, Yajaira Castillo, who lives in Colombia, said she only realized her brother, Luis Alberto Castillo of Venezuela, was among those detained at Gitmo because she spotted him in photos posted on social media by Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, who visited the island Friday.
"My brother is not a criminal," said Castillo. “This is all discrimination and xenophobia, just because he's Venezuelan.”
Eucaris Carolina Gomez Lugo, a plaintiff in the suit filed Wednesday, has a similar story: she only discovered her brother was in detention after photos of him in shackles were spotted.
While the administration has claimed those migrants sent to Gitmo are the "worst of the worst," they have presented no evidence to back up these claims, and the relatives of those who have come forward, like Castillo, say they are completely fraudulent. Castillo shared details and documentation about her brother's asylum claim efforts with the Times.
"Detaining immigrants at Guantánamo Bay without access to legal counsel or basic due process protections is a grave violation of their rights and an alarming abuse of government power," said Rebecca Lightsey, co-executive director of American Gateways. "Our country must not create a shadow system of indefinite detention, stripping noncitizens of their legal protections simply by transferring them offshore."
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Third Judge Blocks Trump's 'Wildly Unconstitutional' Attack on Birthright Citizenship
"While this is just the first of many similar challenges we will face over the coming years, it is an important one because it again reaffirms the fundamental civil rights of American citizens," said one advocate.
Feb 10, 2025
Democracy defenders and migrant rights groups celebrated on Monday after a New Hampshire-based federal judge temporarily blocked Republican U.S. President Donald Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship for children of people who are not in the country legally, the third to do so in under three weeks.
"Today's ruling is the latest rebuke of President Trump's wildly unconstitutional bid to end birthright citizenship," said Cody Wofsy, who is deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project and argued the case. "This attempt to deny babies their citizenship is as illegal as it is inhumane, and we will keep fighting until we stop this order for good."
Opponents of Trump's executive order argue that it clearly conflicts with the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and over a century of legal precedent. The new preliminary injunction from District Judge Joseph Laplante followed similar decisions by Judge John Coughenour in Washington state and Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland.
"Birthright citizenship is a pillar of our democracy, and no president can simply erase it from our Constitution."
According toThe Associated Press, "At least nine lawsuits have been filed to challenge the birthright citizenship order."
Laplante, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their claims and to suffer irreparable harm if he didn't block Trump's order. The judge also concluded that potential harm to plaintiffs absent any action outweighed possible damage to defendants, and that issuing the injunction was in the public interest.
This challenge against Trump's order was launched by the ACLU and the group's Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire arms as well as the Asian Law Caucus (ALC), State Democracy Defenders Fund, and Legal Defense Fund on behalf of New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and Make the Road New York.
"Today's injunction reaffirms what we already know: that birthright citizenship is a pillar of our democracy, and no president can simply erase it from our Constitution," said Jose Lopez, co-executive director of the grassroots group Make the Road New York.
"Our members come from all over the world with courage and resilience to make better lives for their families," Lopez continued. "We are grateful that this injunction means that their children will be treated equally to anyone else born in this country. It is what we all deserve, and we will keep fighting to make sure it is a reality."
ALC executive director Aarti Kohli similarly welcomed that "Trump's unconstitutional executive order is blocked for now, affirming the rights of thousands of Asian immigrants—working parents, asylum-seekers, students—who came here to find opportunity and safety."
Kohli also pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, in which the majority ruled that under the 14th Amendment, a young man born in California to Chinese citizen parents was an American.
"Instead of improving living conditions for all, this administration is creating chaos and fear to further a divisive agenda," she said. "Just as Wong Kim Ark and his community came together over a century ago, we will continue to fight for the freedom to create a better life for our loved ones."
Trump's order to end birthright citizenship is just part of his sweeping assault on migrants. Since returning to office last month, he's also effectively shut down the asylum process at the southern border, reinstated the "Remain in Mexico" policy, and pursued a mass deportation plan that involves locking up migrants in federal prisons and at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Juan Proaño, chief executive officer of LULAC, tied the injunction out of New Hampshire to the broader fight against Trump.
"Today's ruling further confirms that American citizens are indeed American citizens and that no one, not even a president, can take that away," said Proaño. "While this is just the first of many similar challenges we will face over the coming years, it is an important one because it again reaffirms the fundamental civil rights of American citizens and their immigrant family members."
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'Small But Important Win': Court Blocks Trump From Sending 3 Immigrants to Guantánamo
"Our clients refuse to be used as pawns in this twisted game of punishment theater," said a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Feb 10, 2025
A federal court late Sunday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants to Guantánamo Bay, where the U.S. president is planning to jail tens of thousands of people in new detention facilities that critics have likened to concentration camps.
The decision from Judge Kenneth Gonzales of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico came in response to a request for a temporary restraining order filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and other advocacy organizations on behalf of three Venezuelan men currently being held in U.S. immigration detention in New Mexico.
"I fear being taken to Guantánamo because the news is painting it as a black hole," said Abrahan Barrios Morales, one of the petitioners. "I also see that human rights are constantly violated at Guantánamo, so I fear what could happen to me if I get taken there."
Baher Azmy, CCR's legal director, called the judge's decision Sunday a "small but important win for clients otherwise bound to the latest iteration of the legal black hole."
"Will the judge allow the executive branch to smuggle away individuals who have a pending case to a military prison on a remote island where there is no guarantee their rights will be respected or that they will even be able to make a phone call to their lawyers or their loved ones?"
The Trump administration has already moved dozens of people it characterized as Venezuelan gang members from El Paso, Texas to Guantánamo, the site of a notorious U.S. military prison that Amnesty International has described as "a symbol of torture, rendition, and indefinite detention without charge or trial."
The New York Timesnoted over the weekend that the administration "has not released any of their identities, though they are believed to all be men, nor has it said how long they might be held at the island outpost."
"So far, none of the first arrivals have been taken to an emerging tent city that has been set up for migrants," the Times reported. "Instead, they have been housed in the military prison."
According to CCR, its clients "came to the United States seeking asylum, and each passed an initial Credible Fear Interview with U.S. asylum officers by establishing a credible fear of persecution or torture in their home country" of Venezuela.
Jessica Vosburgh, a senior staff attorney at CCR, said in a statement Sunday that "our clients refuse to be used as pawns in this twisted game of punishment theater."
"The question before the court is simple," said Vosburgh. "Will the judge allow the executive branch to smuggle away individuals who have a pending case to a military prison on a remote island where there is no guarantee their rights will be respected or that they will even be able to make a phone call to their lawyers or their loved ones? The answer must be a resounding no."
Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico, warned that "transferring immigrants from Otero County to Guantánamo is a blatant attempt to obstruct their legal rights by placing them thousands of miles from their families and attorneys."
"We're outraged that New Mexico and El Paso, against the backdrop of the horrific cruelty of family separation in the first Trump administration, are once again being used as a testing ground for dehumanizing and dangerous immigration policies," Sheff added.
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